Trailers for '9' and 'State of Play'

What says the holidays more than apocalypses and killing conspiracies?

First up, there's Shane Acker's 9 -- the feature adaptation of his short film -- which you can check out over at Apple.com. The film, which got cooking back in March of 2007, explores a post-apocalyptic world similar to our own where rag dolls fight to survive. Elijah Wood voices the lead rag, 9, while other voices include the likes of Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Martin Landau, and Christopher Plummer.

The film looks stunning, but I can't help wishing that these players were all face-to-face and live action. You don't get a mix like this every day. Glover with Plummer? Can you imagine the possibilities?! Nevertheless, I'll take what I can get. The film opens, appropriately, on 9/9/09.

Second, you can travel over to Yahoo and see the HD trailer for State of Play. The film stars Russell Crowe as a reporter investigating the murder of a congressman's (Ben Affleck, believe it or not) mistress. This might sound familiar -- it's based on the UK series of the same name.

State of Play looks like your standard "journalist on a mission" drama, and has a decent cast to boot -- Crowe and Affleck are joined by the likes of Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman. But the big question is whether it will all be worth it. You might remember that Brad Pitt backed out of the project because he wasn't happy with the script, and now there are rumors floating around that Crowe is in hot water for not losing his State of Play weight in time for Nottingham. This ones hitting screens much sooner -- April 17, 2009.